This invention relates to panel wall systems of the type wherein one or more elongated standards is mounted to a supporting surface, such as a building wall, and one or more removable panels are mounted to the standards.
Panel wall systems are commonly employed in retail establishments for the display of merchandise. These systems commonly utilize panels as a background for the display and commonly include shelves which project from the plane of the panel wall system to receive the merchandise.
In the prior art, it is known to attach a plurality of horizontally oriented and spaced apart channel members to the surface of a building wall, or the like, to attach a plurality of vertically oriented standards to these channel members at spaced apart locations along the length of the channels, and thereafter, to removably mount one or more planar panels between adjacent ones of the standards. U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,339 discloses one such prior art panel wall system. This and other prior art panel wall systems are based upon a grid concept wherein the channels and standards must be carefully located and secured relative to one another to ensure vertical orientation of the standards so that rectangular panels may be received between adjacent ones of the standards. Preferably, these panels are removably received between the standards to permit periodic change of the background of a merchandise display.
For economic reasons, panel wall systems are commonly fabricated from inexpensive materials. Combustibility of the materials has not heretofore been of material concern. However, current and proposed regulations promulgated by regulatory and/or governmental agencies require that the panel wall system be non-combustible, much in the same manner that the wall studs in a retail establishment must be of a non-combustible material.
The relative cost of non-combustible versus combustible raw materials for use in the fabrication of panel wall systems is of substantial concern to retail merchandisers. Where non-combustible panel wall systems are required, as by local, state and/or federal regulatory agencies, there is no choice for the merchandiser but to utilize non-combustible materials in their panel wall systems. Thus, the design of the panel wall system and the cost of installation and/or relocation of panel wall systems are variables which the merchandiser may consider for controlling the cost of a panel wall system. Careful consideration must be given, however, to the selection of the materials of construction of a panel wall system. In particular, it is desired that a panel wall system be fabricated of materials which satisfy the non-combustible requirement and which provide the strength and rigidity required to support the merchandise to be displayed, all at a minimum overall cost to the merchandiser. Overall cost to the merchandiser includes the initial cost of the components of the panel wall system, the cost of initial installation, and the cost associated with subsequent rearrangement of the panel wall system to accommodate changes in the panel wall system which are needed or desired for displaying different merchandise. The known prior art has failed to satisfy these needs. Particularly, the known prior art does not provide the combination of a non-combustible panel wall system which includes the feature of convenient exchange of the panels of the system after the system has been installed. Also the known prior art utilizes aluminum extrusions which are both relatively expensive and or less than desirable strength and/or rigidity.
Unless otherwise obvious from the context of their use, primed numerals are employed to designate like components or elements of the depicted embodiments among the several Figures.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a panel wall system which comprises a plurality of standards, each formed from a non-combustible material, which are mountable in an upright attitude at spaced apart locations on a supporting surface, such as the common wall of a building. Each standard includes a planar face web, which is oriented in a plane which is spaced apart from, and commonly parallel to, the supporting surface, and opposite side webs which project substantially perpendicularly from the opposite side edges of the face web. In a preferred embodiment each of the side webs transitions into a planar wing which is integrally formed with its respective side web and projects outwardly of the standard and along its length. At precisely spaced apart locations along the length of each wing there are provided holes for use in mounting of the standard to its supporting wall. At spaced apart locations along each side web, there is provided a plurality of lugs, each of which, for example, may comprise a punch-out of the side web. These lugs are spaced apart by predetermined distances along the length of their respective standard.
The present system further includes a plurality of panel members, each formed of a non-combustible material and preferably rectangular in geometry, each of which includes a planar front face. Each panel member includes a lug on each of the opposite side of the panel and which projects rearwardly of the panel in a direction which is substantially perpendicular to the planar front face of the panel. In a preferred embodiment, each panel includes at least four such lugs, one each located at each of the four corners of the panel. Each panel is sized to fit between adjacent ones of the standards with the lugs on the panel being adapted to removably engage the lugs on the standards to thereby removably mount each panel between the adjacent standards. The spacing and dimensioning of the lugs and their interconnection are chosen to cause the planar front face of each panel to be in substantially the same plane as the plane occupied by the planar face webs of the standards and for the panel face and the face web to be flush with one another.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the planar web of each standard is provided along its length with at least one row, and preferably two parallel rows of openings therethrough for the receipt of mounting lugs of shelf brackets, for example, of the type well known in the art, further, the front face of each panel member optionally includes one or more slots through the thickness thereof, each slot including an associated ledge which projects away from the rear face of the panel to define one or more receptacles for pegboard-type hangers.